StarCrossed
by Cruza
Summary: She fell in battle several years ago, when Aura was first awakened by Tsukasa.  Having been revived and restored by the Goddess herself, Kazumei struggles to piece together the shattered remains of her dotted past.  .hack/SIGNxROOTS


**Prologue**

Star-crossed. Such a misleading word it is to captivate the ears of the ignorant, unaware of its true meaning, with its sweet sounding presence. Ill-fated be its true nature. Ill-fated...such a negative phrase brings such negative thoughts and emotions. Ill-fated...is a young woman known to The World as Kazumei.

Darkness. Silence. Loneliness. She was alone and she was not all together. Her memories were scattered about, here and there, her data unstable. A young woman, who knew herself to be a once proud Blade-Master in The World, was reduced to fragments of data floating around in what looked to be a data field that consisted of walls that looked to be constructed of green lines and the empty space between them. Her eyes remained closed as a dim light began to radiate from her tattered and torn body. Slowly, the bits and pieces of the data that belonged to her began to come together and reconstruct the form she held before her descent into this sad state of being.

"Kazumei," a soft and melodic voice sounded within the void the young woman slept in. "Kazumei...can you hear me?"

Static with no clear origin rocked the area and Kazumei's form. The index finger of her right hand twitched for a split second before becoming still once more. Static rolled through her once more and the voice called out to her again, "Kazumei..."

"I can...I can hear you...," replied the sleeping Kazumei, her lips never moving even once. It was as if the words that emanated from her came from the confines of her mind and were able to echo out into the vast emptiness because of its lack of anything to fill the void.

The voice rang out again, warm and welcoming, "Kazumei, I need you. I need you to remember. Kazumei..."

Static shook the area violently and for a moment, it looked like Kazumei's incomplete body would shatter and disappear into the nothingness of the field around her. Yet, she was able to hold herself together. The static did nothing to halt the process of being rebuilt. Kazumei was still there; she was still holding on...

"Remember...? Remember what?" Kazumei's voice echoed throughout the void before fading away into the inky, black darkness.

* * *

_The sound of air quickly whizzing by her filled her ears. Her violet eyes were wide open, she knew that much, but she could not see clearly. Her vision was plagued by black spots blotting out the scenery above her. And what lay above her? The azure blue sky with its perfect, puffy white clouds. She could feel herself growing farther and farther apart from it. She turned her head slightly and from the corner of her eye she could see the ground with its green grass quickly coming closer. A sigh and a smile of acceptance, Kazumei turned her head to stare at the sky above her. And that's when she saw it: Skeith. It was slowly dissolving into nothingness, disintegrating._

_And she had hit the ground, with a sickening thud. Her already battered body rose slightly from the ground, bouncing back from the impact she had sustained from colliding with the solid ground. Her mouth had opened, as if to scream out in pain, but no sound escaped her lips. After a moment, the fallen warrior simply lay limp on the ground with her head turning to a side. Her breathing was shallow and ragged, taking in only small gasps of air. She blinked but each time her eyelids covered her violet eyes and uncovered them, her vision became increasingly marred by black spots._

_"Kazumei!" a new voice called out, full of panic and urgency. Hurried footsteps accompanied the voice and before long, a boy dressed in brown and gray robes and carrying a staff with a crescent shaped top came into view. His navy blue eyes were filled with concern as he knelt by the fallen Kazumei and attempted to heal her with a spell. Behind him, two girls had emerged. One wore a white bra-top and skirt, carried a giant axe, and had blue hair. The other wielded a large broadsword and wore a crimson bra-top and skirt with armor and sported brown hair._

_Kazumei gave the boy a weak smile before moving her head slightly from side to side, telling him it was no use. The boy's head tilted downward in guilt, his silver hair covering his navy blue eyes for a moment before Kazumei's voice called to him, "Tsukasa... I'm sorry. Looks like I won't be going back with you guys... But don't worry; we'll meet again someday. I know it..."_

_The boy, Tsukasa, raised his navy blue eyes and made eye contact with Kazumei just before her violet ones flickered with the light of a life being extinguished and slowly closed. Just as her body began to relax and her final breath left her body, Tsukasa slammed both of him palms to the floor (along with his staff) and cried out, "No! Kazumei, you can't...you can't leave us like this! You said...you said you wanted to meet in the real world! You promised! You...promised..." His fingers began curling back, making indentations in the ground where his digits made contact with the ground, as teardrops overflowed and tricked down his face and onto the dirt. Behind him, the two girls were fighting back tears that were escaping their eyes but to no avail. As if the death of their friend wasn't enough, her body slowly began to disintegrate - the effects of the Data Drain were starting to kick in._

_"Don't look so sad now," came the voice of a young girl. All at once, Kazumei's data seemed to freeze in mid-air and hang there giving what was left of her body a sort of mystical and forlorn feeling. Tsukasa blinked a few times before looking to his left and finding a pale, young girl clothed in an immaculately white dress with her palm out facing Kazumei._

_"Aura...," Tsukasa said, sniffling a little, "What...what...?" _

_The girl Aura looked to Tsukasa and offered him a warm smile, saying, "Your friend will sleep now. I'll look after her." With that, two orbs of light came out of no where and circled Kazumei's data before it disappeared along with Aura deep into The World._

_

* * *

_

"Do you remember?" came the repeated question, "Do you remember, Kazumei?"

After a moment of silence, the still-sleeping form of Kazumei answered, "Yes. I remember, Aura. I remember you...I remember that... But, I can't remember anything else. I can't remember, Aura... Why?"

"The answers will come to you in time," Aura said to her, in a comforting tone, "Now, sleep. Sleep and know that when you awaken, you are needed."

With that said Kazumei faded into her subconscious, her body's reconstruction well under way even if her memories were scattered.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

This particular story is near and dear to my heart. I originally started working on it on Quizilla, but it was completely lost due to some site updates. I just started getting around to it again, since Kazumei is one of my favorite original characters. It'll take a while to bring this series back up to speed (I was in the process of writing chapter 12 when I lost everything) but it's about time I brought it back anyway. Feedback and other reader response is much appreciated and I'll do my best to answer any questions regarding this series. Thanks.


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